Rotary printing press



April 13, 1948. c. s. CRAFTS 2,439,454

ROTARY PRINTING PRESS Filed Nov. 28, 1944 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 April 13, 1948. c. s. CRAFTS 2,439,454

ROTARY PRINTING PRESS IUTORNEY Patented Apr. 13,

! UNITED STATES PATENT. :oF-Ficr.

ROTARY rnnmno raass Curtis s. Crafts, Oak rut. nu; or w in Goes Printing Press Company, h ago, Ill., a corporation of Illinois I Application November as, mascara No. 505,449

- 2Clalmb. (Cl. 101 216) 2 The present invention relates to new and usemeansi'rom the'main (iriv'e shaft. Preferably, the

ful improvements in high speed rotary printing drivefromthe main drive shaft to the cylinders presses. oi the printingeouple includes a resilient gear in Objects and advantages of the invention will which the teeth are so'mounted as to have conbe set forth in part hereinafter and in part will siderable flexibility or resiliency with respect to be obvious herefrom, or may be learnedby practhe hubof the gear so that while the printing tice with the invention, the samebeingf realized couple rotates at an average speed which is conand attained by means of the ins'trumentalities s tant, it is permitted to have slight, rapid changes and combinations pointed out in the appended in speed to accommodate for the small acceleraclaims. i tions and decelerations which occur in the normal The invention consists in the novel parts, conrunning oi the cylinders ofjthe printing couple. structions. arrangements, combinations and im- Heretofore it has been customary to drive the provements herein shown and described. relatively heavy ink drums from the plate cylin- The accompanying drawings referred to herein der, and due to the relatively great inertia of and constituting a part hereof, illustrate one emthese heavy drums when operating at high speed. bodiment of the invention, and together with the breakage ,of' gear. teeth has been frequent due to description, serve to explain thevprinciples of the the inability of the teeth 7 to transmit the exinvention. cessiveloads imposed on them by the rapid,al-

0f the drawings. though small, accelerations and decelerations of Figure 1 is a schematic side elevation of a typithe printing couple cylinders. By the present incal and illustrative embodiment of the invention, vention, independent'driving means are provided with the frame of the pressomitted; by which the cylinders of the printing couple are Figure 2 is a detailed sectional view taken on driven in a'simple mariner, independently of the the line 22of Figure 1; heavy .inkdistributing drums so that the varia- Figure 3 is a detailed elevation, with certain tionsin the speed of running of one does not parts broken away, of one of the gears used in aflec tthe drive of the other.

the embodiment shown in Figure 1; and It ill be understood that'the foregoing general, Figure 4 is a fragmentary top plan view of the description'and the following detailed description printing press shown in Figure 1. as well are exemplary and'explanatory of the in- The pres nt inventi n has .for its Object the vention but are not restrictive thereof.

provision of a novel and improved 'high speed Referring now in detail to the illustrative emrotarv printin pr s havin n improved drive "bodiment oi'the'inv'en'tion as shown in the ac-.

for the printing couple and the hiking drums. A companying" drawings, 'Figure 1 shows a high further object of the invention is the provision speed" rotary printing press corresponding in genof an improved rotary printing press which can 3 era] to a unit-type of newspaper press. In this be driven at higher speeds than have heretofore press'there are provided the impression cylinders been considered commercially practical. Still an- IQ and Iii which run in printing contact, with other object of the invention is the provision of a their respective plate cylinders l2 and I3. The high Sp rotary Printing P av relatively stereotype printing plates carried by the plate heavy ink distributing drums which are driven'in- 4o cylinders i2 and I 3 receive ink from the form dependently of the printing cylinders and operate rollers i4 which roll in contact with the plates at a constant speed of rotation regardless of the and-receive ink from an ink distributing drum i5 rapid changes in speed to whichthe cylinders of which, if -desired,'may be'vibrated for better in: the printing couple may be subject. distribution I5 is provided with a dis- In accordance with the present invention, the 'tributing' r011 46, and the drum receives ink from plate and impression cylinders of a high speed the transfer rollers I I which also runin contact rotary printing press are geared together to rotate with another hea y, preferably vibrated. ink disat the same speed and the ink for theplates on tributing drum i8, and drum i8 may likewise be the plate cylinder is supplied by means of ink provided with its distributing roller IS. The

drums transferring ink to rollers'which contact drum il'receives ink from an ink fountain roll 20 with the, plates on the plate cylinder. The cylinthrough a doctor roller 2| so that the ink is slowly ders of the printing couple are driven from a fed from the fountain to the distributing drums compound bevel spur gear receiving its power where it is reduced to a thin film and evenly disfrom a main driving shaft while the'ink drums 'tributedand is finally applied by the rollers H are independently driven by separate driving to the plates on cylinder II or II. The plate cylinders l2 and I3 are adapted to print on a web of paper W-which passes up between the cylinders I and I2 around cylinder l2 and thence,

the printing couples and for this purpose power is supplied from a suitable motor to a main drive shaft 30 which extends, vertically upward and is provided with a beveled gear 3| meshing with beveled gear 32 of the compound spur gear 33. The compound spur gear 33 meshes with a spur gear 34 to drive plate cylinder l3 and with a spur gear 35 to drive impression cylinder "I so that the cylinders l0 and I3 are driven at the same speed. At the other ends of cylinders I0 and 3, gears are provided by which impression cylinder H is driven from plate cylinder 3 and the plate cylinder I2 is driven from the impression cylinder l0. As shown in my prior patent, impression eylinder, I0 and plate cylinder l2 are lntergeared at their far side for rotation together by -means of the gears 38 and 39, and gears 40 and 4| are provided on the shafts of cylinders II and 3 to drive impression cylinder H from the plate cylinder l3.

Preferabl the drive from the main drive shaft 30 to the cylinders l0 and I3 isthrough the resilient gears 34 and 35, although in some instances standard forms of gears may be used. Figures 2 and 3 illustrate more in detail the resilient gears, and as there shown, each resilient gear comprises a hub member 44 keyed to the shaft '4 are and drums of the ink system to drive the fountain roll at a slow speed, and the ink distributing drums l3 and I3 at a faster speed which, however, is preferably approximately the same surface sp ed as the plate cylinders l2 and I3.

Ordinarily the various transfer and distributing rollers l4, l3, II, II and 2| are not driven except by frictional contact with their various cooperating drums.

During the operation of the press, and particularly when operating at high speeds in excess of 25,000 plate cylinder revolutions per hour, the

plate and impression cylinders are continuously subjected to accelerating and decelerating forces while rotating at a substantially constant average speed. The drive from the main drive shaft 30 through the compound gear 33 to the cylinder gears of the printing couple absorb a large part of these sudden, though minute, variations in speed, particularly where the resilient gears 34 and 35 constitute the driving connection from the compound gear 33 to the cylinders of the printing couples. By providing an entirely independent drive from the main drive shaft 30 to the heavy ink distributing drums l5 and I8, these drums are allowed to rotate at their normal, constant speed without placing any undue load on any of the gear teeth such as has heretofore been the case where these drums were driven from the cylinders of the, printing couples. In the latter case the teeth of the intermediate gear between the printing couple and the ink train fail eriodically. Making this gear of resilient construction, or making the gear which drives it from the printing couple of resilient construction, is not a complete solution of the problem.

The present invention eliminates entirely the so as to be rigidly fixed thereon. Surrounding the hub portion 44 is a gear ring 45 having the gear teeth 46 formed thereon. The hub portion 44 and ring portion 45 are drivingly and resiliently interconnected by means of a plurality of resilient members permitting slight circumferential movement of the gear teeth in either direction with respect to the gear hub 44. While various resilient means may be employed, these resilient means preferably comprise rubber balls which are fitted in registering sockets formed on the adjacent edges of the hub 44 and ring 45, the size of the balls being so related to the sockets that they are held compressed and in shear. The balls 41 are preferably mounted in pairs, and are retained within the sockets by means of the retaining rings 48 which are secured by screws 49 at the outer ends of the sockets. As the gear ring 45 is driven, the shearing load is applied to the balls 41 in one direction so long as driving power is being applied while any tendency of the hub 44 to run ahead of the ring 45 applies a shearing load to the balls 41 in the opposite direction.

Means are provided for driving the inking mechanism from the main drive shaft 30 and as illustrated the hypoid gears 50 drive a horizontal shaft 5| at a reduced speed and shaft 5| drives the inking mechanism at both sides of the press. Near each end, shaft 5| carries a worm 52 which meshes with a worm gear 53 to drive the fountain roller 20 at a slow speed, and beyond the worm 52 is mounted a bevel gear 54 meshing with a bevel gear 55, a compound gear 56 which drives gear 51 fixed to the heavy distributing drum Hi and also drives idler 58 which in turn drives gear 60 fixed to the distributing drum 50. Thus an independent drive is provided for the driven rollsubject to failure in the old rigid-construction.

By providing resilient gears 34 and 35 on the cylinders of the printing couple to receivethe driving power therefor from compound gear 33, and by providing a separate power takeoff from the main drive shaft to drive the inktrain, not only is the ink train driven by an essentially smooth flow of power and the rotational inequalities of the printing couple dampened at their source, but the rapid acceleration and deceleration of the couple, in order to affect the ink train at all, must not only surmount the damping power of gears 34 and 35 but travel backwards through gears 33, 32, 3|, main shaft 30, gears 50, shaft 5|, and gears 54, 55 and 55. The torsional flexibility of these shafts and the backlash in these numerous gears are thus combined with the damping qualities of resilient gears 34 and 35 to provide complete damping of the inherent irregularities in speed of rotation of the printing couple.

The invention in its broader aspects is not limited to the specific mechanisms shown and described but departures may be made therefrom within the scope of the accompanying claims without departing from the principles of the invention and without sacrificing its chief advantages What I claim is:

1. In a high speed rotary printing press having a rotary printing couple including plate and impression cylinders, and ink distributing drums to rotate with the cylinders, the combination of driving means'for the cylinders and drums including a main drive shaft, resilient means for driving the cylinders from the main driveshaft. gearing interconnecting the cylinders for driving one from the other and separate drivingmeans for driving the ink distributing drums from the necting the cylinders, a main vertical drive shaft and a resilient gear between the drive shaft and one of the cylinders, to drive the cylinders, an ink drum, a fountain roller and a horizontal shaft driven from the main shaft, worm gearing interconnecting the horizontal shaft and the fountain roller and bevel gears 'between the horizontal shaft and drum. 7

CURTIS s. cams.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 10 Number Name Date 1,569,065 Bechman Jan. 12, 1926 2,085,185 Crafts June 29, 1937 2,297,005

Livingston Sept. 29, 1942 

